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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26607028">the water will not claim me (she already has)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cap_and_cyborg/pseuds/cap_and_cyborg'>cap_and_cyborg</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5+1 Things, Background Nicky/Joe, F/F, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:35:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,503</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26607028</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cap_and_cyborg/pseuds/cap_and_cyborg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Andromache and Quynh and water throughout the ages.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the water will not claim me (she already has)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> I.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Water was hard to come by in the desert, but Andromache couldn’t let the woman she had found die from dehydration again.  Tilting her head back, she gave her the last bit of water from her waterskin.  Andromache watched as the woman swallowed weakly, eyes fluttering.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Standing, Andromache grabbed one of her arms and hefted her over her shoulders.  She felt the woman’s weak exhalation of breath against her arm.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>And she walked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Step after step, she moved closer to her destination.  On the way to finding this woman, unable to resist the despair she felt from her every time Andromache dreamt, she had found a small green area a day’s walk away.  With the added weight on her back, it took two mind-numbing, grueling days to return.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andromache kept moving, even as she felt the woman waste away on her back.  It would do no good to stop and check on her.  What could she do to help now?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She kept walking.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Finally, they arrived.  Andromache laid the woman gently propped up against a rock, then went to refill her waterskin.  The woman didn’t wake as she returned.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey,” Andromache said, shaking her shoulder lightly.  No response.  Putting some water into her hand, Andromache brought it to the woman’s lips.  They parted, taking in the drink.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dark eyes drifted slightly open, unseeing.  Undeterred, Andromache lifted the waterskin to her lips and tilted it, letting the water dribble in.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The woman coughed, eyes coming alive as she realized what was happening.  She lifted an arm to reach for the skin, but Andromache easily batted it away.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Slowly, slowly,” Andromache encouraged.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her voice must have cut through the haze of the woman’s mind, as she looked up at Andromache.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their eyes met and Andromache felt the loneliness that she had worn as a shroud for centuries fall away as they gazed at each other.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>II.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After the battle, they were all covered in filth and sweat.  Lykon was the only one of them that hadn’t suffered a fatal blow at some point and he loudly complained about their stench, laughter in his eyes.  They were all so used to one another that it was nothing to all undress and climb into the gentle river they found together.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I will look for a meal,” Lykon said, clean long before either of them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Thank you, brother,” Andromache replied, taking a moment to just float in the slow movement of the water.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I expect to see you for food before sundown!  Do not get so distracted you disappoint me!” he called as he walked away.  Andromache may have taken him more seriously if laughter hadn’t rang through his voice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yes, yes, we promise…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As soon as he was out of sight, Quynh pushed through the water towards Andromache, who turned instinctively to receive an armful of her love.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Do you think we will actually get back for the meal?” Quynh asked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If not,” Andromache said, pushing Quynh’s long, wet hair away from her face, “we are lucky Lykon is more forgiving than we deserve.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>III.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The fact that Cairo’s public baths were divided for females and males was not a deterrence to Andromache’s little band of immortals.  In fact, it was somewhat of a blessing.  Despite loving each other for over three hundred years now, Yusuf and Nicoló still acted as if they had just wed yesterday.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>After they parted at the entrance, Andromache turned to Quynh and asked, “We were never so caught up in each other, were we?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Quynh smiled, but her eyes were sad.  Andromache knew what she was going to say before the words left her mouth, as she knew who brought that look to her love’s face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I think Lykon would disagree with you, <em> trái tim của em,” </em> she replied.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andromache scoffed, but moved to hold Quynh’s hand only to have their hands meet halfway.  They looked down, considered their intertwined fingers, then burst out laughing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Very well, I am bested.  We are just as bad,” Andromache said, pulling Quynh further into the bath.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>IV.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>England was dreary.  There was no other word for it.  Clouds hung above them with weak sunlight poking through.  It drizzled most days without end.  And people were dying of false accusations of witchcraft.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their tiny house in the woods was their only sanctuary from the madness of the world around them.  Every day, they tried to help those they could.  And every night, they retreated back to their small one room with walls and a roof and collapsed together, soaked through and exhausted.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the middle of the night, Quynh shook Andromache awake.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What?  What is it?” Andromache demanded, instantly awake and weapon in hand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“It is finally really raining, <em> ánh nắng của em</em>.  It is like a monsoon out there,” Quynh said, looking outside with a soft smile gracing her lips.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andromache groaned and fell back into bed, dropping her ax back onto the floor.  “Wonderful, I am very glad.  May I sleep now?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Quynh turned to her and shook her head, pulling her long nightgown off until she was just in her shift.  “We should not waste this weather.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What do you mean?” Andromache asked, instantly more awake.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Quynh walked slowly towards her and leaned down to whisper in Andromache’s ear.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Dance with me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She turned and walked out the door.  In a moment, her shift was soaked through but she merely lifted her arms and face to the sky, letting the rain cascade down her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then she turned her head to look back at Andromache, sitting stunned in their bed as she stared at the woman who held her heart.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Are you joining me?” Quynh asked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andromache had lived over five thousand years and over the millennia, she had developed a grace in her way of moving that came from battlefields and training.  That said, she scrambled out of bed and her nightgown in her rush to get out to Quynh.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In that moment, the ugliness of their day to day work faded from mind and all Andromache knew was Quynh’s laugh, her cold lips curled into a smile even as they kissed, and her arms around Andromache as they danced in the downpour.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>V.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andy hated coming back to England.  The rain seemed to mock her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Of course, their assignment had been on the coast.  It was finished now, but still, she had come back to the water.  The vast ocean stretched out in front of her, crashing into the shore and soaking her bare feet.  Her shoes lay forgotten in the sand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It had been two hundred years since they had given up the search.  More than that since she and Quynh had danced in the rain that night.  The ache was old, but here, in the ocean where somewhere in its depths, Quynh lay trapped and dying… that ache turned into a burn in her chest.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The waves at her feet were the closest she had gotten to touching Quynh in a very long time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She knelt in the water, uncaring about the ridiculous clothes this century required her to wear.  When she got back to their safe house, she would don trousers and be freer.  For now, she let the layers of fabric soak through around her, weighing her down with each wave.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> “Chị nhớ em,” </em> she whispered, and the burn in her chest flared into an inferno.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Joe and Nicky found her there hours later.  The tide had gone out but still, she sat, soaked through and staring blankly out towards the ocean.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>+1</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As she settled into the jacuzzi bathtub in their latest Air D and D, or whatever Nile called it, Andy let out a deep sigh of relief.  While her muscles had already recovered from the strain of the mission, she still let the warmth soothe away any remnants of pain.  She leaned back and closed her eyes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The bathroom door opened and closed but she didn’t have to look to know who was there.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was a rustle of fabric and that, <em> that </em> made Andy turn to watch as Quynh took off her dirtied outfit.  Some things never grew old, no matter how much time had passed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Baths have truly come a long way in the time I was gone,” Quynh said, settling into the v between Andy’s legs.  The water splashed a bit as she moved, but as she settled, so did the small waves.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The world is definitely better for it,” Andy agreed, dropping a kiss on her love’s bare shoulder.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It took them a long time to get here, Quynh’s back to Andy’s front, submerged in warm, scented water in the 21st century.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Andy may always resent the centuries taken from them and the pain they had both gone through to get to this moment.  But now, her arms around her heart long gone from her, she let those feelings fade away in the water and pulled her closer.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They soaked together, unspeaking, as calm as the water around them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Translations thanks to @hottopicmonk on tumblr and Lifeisbeautiful here on ao3:<br/>trái tim của em - my heart<br/>ánh nắng của em - my sunshine<br/>chị nhớ em - I miss you</p>
<p>Thanks to @igotofetchthesun on tumblr for looking over this fic for me &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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